1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a detachable structure for an ink cartridge in a printer and a control method for attaching/detaching an ink cartridge in a printer.
2. Description of Related Art
In an inkjet printer, various types of inks are used such as a water-based type, an oil-based type and a UV type according to its printing usage. Since an image size to be printed becomes larger and thereby consumption amount of ink becomes larger in recent days, an ink cartridge tends to be replaced more frequently than before.
Compared with ink supplying through the ink supply needle, ink dripping from a joint tends to increase according to the above-mentioned joint mechanism. The ink dripping onto the ink cartridge, the inside of the printer and so on may taint user's hands and clothes or an attachment section of the ink cartridge in the printer. Especially, ink tends to drip off in a detachable structure of an ink cartridge as shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B.
However, coagulation or separation of inks may occur when different types of inks are mixed due to an erroneous attachment by a user. In addition, coagulation or separation of inks may sometimes occur when different colors of a type of ink are mixed. Therefore, mechanical troubles such as injection failures and plugs on an ink passageway may be sometimes brought unfortunately when different ink types or ink colors are used with a common type of an ink cartridge.
Some techniques for solving the above-mentioned issue were proposed. For example, Japanese Application Laid-open No. 2006-21398 (Patent Document 1) discloses color indicators that are provided on an ink cartridge and a printer and visible when the ink cartridge is installed on the printer. When the ink cartridge is installed on the printer appropriately, colors of their color indicators will be identical.